Swine flu: 300 quarantined in Hong Kong hotel for a week

About 300 people have been placed under quarantine for seven days in a Hong
Kong hotel after a guest from Mexico became China’s first confirmed swine
flu case.

The extreme move comes after Donald Tsang, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, said on Friday that lab tests confirmed that a 25-year-old visitor from Mexico who arrived on a China Eastern Airlines flight from Shanghai had the disease.

Authorities immediately quarantined the hotel where the Mexican had stayed on Thursday night, instructing all 200 guests and approximately 100 staff members that they had to stay at the Metropark for seven days - regardless of whether or not they had come into contact with the man..

Hong Kong television footage showed police in surgical masks guarding the exits to the hotel.

China suspended flights from Mexico to Shanghai, state media reported, after the Mexican man tested positive for the swine flu virus on Friday.

The report said China had notified the Mexican government and airline companies about the decision, quoting sources from the ministry.